Filipina tennis sensation Alex Eala made history once again on Monday with her riveting 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (13-11) upset of Danish tennis ace Clara Tauson at the Grandstand in Flushing Meadows, New Jersey, to start the 2025 US Open.
Eala’s thrilling victory over Tauson is the kind of career-defining win that deserves a deep dive—and that’s exactly what we will be doing as we dug up some numbers that perfectly tell the story behind Eala’s latest history-making feat.
Take a look:
100
That’s the number of total points Alex Eala won in her historic victory, which is five fewer than Tauson’s. But the 20-year-old Filipina won the points that mattered most, including the last one that gave her the monumental upset.
96
That’s how long Eala and Tauson tussled at Flushing Meadows, and every minute was intense and tension-filled as the two women looked to advance further in the last Grand Slam of 2025.
75
That’s the current ranking of Eala in the WTA after reaching as high as no. 65 in late July. Eala’s recent struggles, though, saw her slide down from 65 to 68, and then all the way down to 75 before the US Open.
14
That’s the women’s world ranking of Tauson, who showed in stretches the talent and skill that made her the 14th-ranked woman in all of tennis. That pedigree was on full display in the second set, where the Danish tennis ace beat Eala convincingly, 6-2.
5-1
That was the deficit Eala faced in the third set, where it looked like Tauson was on the verge of running away with the match. The Danish sensation appeared firmly in control and headed to the round of 64, while the Filipina ace looked flat, fatigued, and out of it.
5
That’s how many set points Eala won to send the third set to a nail-biting finish—a race-to-10 tiebreak that took 24 total points to be completed, as neither woman gave an inch. Five was also the number of match points the Quezon City native needed to finally beat Tauson.
4
That is now the number of top-20 players Eala has beaten this year alone, including the 14th-ranked Tauson. The Filipina’s giant-slaying ways began in March when she stunned world no. 5 Madison Keys at the 2025 Miami Open. She then beat world no. 20 Jeļena Ostapenko in the second round of the same tournament, before shocking world no. 2 Iga Świątek in the quarterfinals.
1
That’s the number of Filipinos who have won a match in a Grand Slam in the Open Era. In other words, Eala’s victory over Tauson made her one of one—a history maker looking to make more history for herself, and the Philippines.
What’s Next for Alex Eala?
Alex Eala of the Philippines will return to action on August 27 in the round-of-64 against either Spain’s Cristina Busca or American Claire Liu. Busca, 27, is ranked no. 95 in the world and is an Olympian, having won bronze with Sara Sorribes Tormo in the 2024 Paris Olympics in Women’s Doubles. Liu, on the other hand, is ranked no. 389 in the world.
Historically, Alex Eala has already beaten Busca once back in 2021 but is yet to meet Liu.
